[Dalton] The recent explosion of capital investments throughout the flooring industry, particularly in the Northwest Georgia corridor has prompted suppliers of other flooring materials to also invest in growth and development. Mattex USA, a carpet backing manufacturer based in the Middle East with offices in Dalton, is one of them.

According to Barclay Payne, managing director, “When we see our customers investing so heavily, it allows us to also make investments. Right now you see large companies investing. People are buying tufting machines and when we see that it makes us feel confident in what we’re doing.

“We are the largest provider to the companies that don’t have their own assets to make primary backing in the U.S. Once we get this facility up, we will be the largest provider of primary and secondary backing in the world.”

There are a lot of advantages to being in the heart of carpet country. First, customers want local suppliers, he said. “Energy rates here we think will be competitive, transportation costs are low and labor rates are good. There is lower cost labor available (in other parts of the world), but our investments in technology allow us to really drive down costs. And, this environment is a very good place for business.”

Right now, the company operates out of a sales and distribution facility; its new plant in Chatsworth is just beginning production and will be fully operational in September. With more than 100 million square yards of capacity, the plant will manufacture three products: polypropylene primary backing, plus open end spun secondary backing and a polyester primary backing primarily for the carpet tile market.

“For the new plant, operators and extrusion and mechanical and technical people all need good skills. We’ll also be doing R&D, trial work and product development right here,” he said. “Carl Campbell (project manager for the Georgia Department of Economic Development) and his group have been great to work with. Here locally, county government was able to do a lot for us. They put on a job fair for us — we had over 600 people come to the job fair for 165 jobs. We picked up a lot of good candidates. They have the Quick Start program that has helped with training. There are a lot of reasons we picked being here and we had the whole world to choose from.” But in the end, he said, local community efforts really made a difference.

“We will have over 170 employees by the end of the year with aspirations to continue to grow. Last year we had six to seven employees,” said Payne.

“The cooperation between government and industry to build the infrastructure, to build energy and water treatment plants, this is not new in Dalton,” said Rick Moon, sales manager, Mattex USA. “That’s how Dalton started. We’ve always had that kind of cooperation. This is a renaissance, if you will, in terms of new manufacturing investments.”